Thursday, January 3, 2008

Z

The Legal Monthly

Vol. 2 No. 9 Read Z the Blog at http://zlegaltimes.blogspot.com/ Dec/Jan '08

The Uniquely Gregarious Source Of Legal News And “Divers” Contrary Information

***************************************

Editor's Note

Reflections

Enron: Skilling's Appeal

Re-Entry and Sentencing

Want More, Give More?

From California

Scotus Focus

From Grits

From Z Editor I can hardly believe this rag has been going for Fourteen issues. One or two new subscribers express an interest with each fresh vituperative slam. It feels like progress, even though bimonthly or quarterly instead of monthly has become the norm. Nonetheless, I hope you are enjoying the highlights of all the news and spin that's fit to font. It is distressing to fall behind with each new development, and so I've been resigned to skimming the highs and lows of what I think is “the big” news. I'm sorry I've been unable to keep up with all the circuit cases in advance as I tried once to do. And as always, a very warm welcome to all newbies. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all. May 2008 be long and prosperous. Or short, if you are up for release.

The Supreme Court is in the mid-term recess, and finally issued its first opinions of the term in December. Also, there have been some curious developments in the criminal sentencing, sex offender commitment and residency challenges areas. GPS monitoring has been in the spotlight as well. And, as always, more DNA exonerations and freeing of innocents jailed.

I was able to read “The Innocent Man” by John Grisham over a short Christmas break. I'm glad I did, even though I once thought it hit too close to home and avoided it. The main theme about the end of the presumption of innocence is sad but true: rotten apples in law enforcement have done untold harm in this arena. Overall, the book has my highest recommendation.

The Supreme Court affirmed the moratorium on lethal injection executions until Baze can be decided, and Boumedienne put habeas in the spotlight Wednesday (12/5). There was an interesting debate at the Federalist Society website on this. Tim Lynch (CATO Institute) asserted that the DTA/MCA (Detainee Treatment/Military Commissions Acts) is an unlawful suspension of the constitutional writ of habeas corpus. Marty Lederman joined in questioning the efficacy of the government's arguments. The voices from the “right” come from ex-government prosecutors and Bushies who cannot assume quickly enough that anyone arrested anywhere -- by feds, CIA, SpOp, Army, Marine or whomever -- must be, you guessed it, bad guys. What's so Kafkaesque is that when you ask for the evidence they just tell you its “classified” or “we can't tell you.”

Oh well. Just trust 'em. I, for one, will not trust one Republican politician with one more dollar ever again, not after what's happened in the past eight years of Republican rule. Carefully note the qualification as discrimination is not on party affiliation alone: Republican is okay by me, but don't be both, a politician too, because that's not kosher. They say Republicans don't handle power well, and isn't it curious that's what they're saying about Candidate Rudy Giuliani? Well okay, maybe I've been looking for just the right excuse not to pay my taxes this year.

In the words of one big-time attorney for the defendants, military commission hearings are “a joke”. If the commission finds that there isn't enough evidence to hold the guy they simply schedule another hearing until the guy loses. That is not some wacko talking but a lawyer, in some instances a former JAG officer. The inside scoop sends a very clear message about command pressure. It speaks ugly volumes about the guys responsible for running the place, and I don't just mean Gitmo. It speaks volumes about us generally, about America, and what we've become. A nation of laws, or a nation of flawed laws? A nation in need of fixing.

Speaking of scoop, apparently one tuff grandma (from Texas) has a son, a former White House Spokesman who claims he was mislead into making false statements to the public and thereby actually becoming the mouthpiece for the communication of lies to the public by, of all people, the President, Vice President and their closest aids. This seems another one of those, “if anybody should know ...” cases. But wait, try this one on for size, “if you can't trust the government whom can you trust?”

Speaking of trust, guess whom a congressional committee voted to hold in contempt of Congress: Gonzo Attorney General Gonzales, and gonzo top WH official and nominee to Supreme Court, Harriet -- I'm-so-good-at-writing thank-you-notes-to-my-boss-the-President -- Meiers.

Where the Gitmo guys could go upon being released is a really good question. One (facetious) response is that they'd come aboard and apply for political asylum. After six years of Gitmo they're really in need of some R and R, and maybe that should be someplace near an Iranian nuclear facility. I'll bet we could arrange that. How about this: a convoy of cruise missiles with Gitmo guys strapped on? It's not like we've treated them honorably the way we'd treat real POWs. What's that story about killing two birds with one rocket? Convenience. Buy now, pay later.

How pissed off would you be if, just if, you really were innocently swept up in Afghanistan, or in the current case, Algerians found in Bosnia after the Supreme Court there found insufficient evidence and ordered your release? We've picked up Canadians and German residents as well and rendered them. Say, I've got a really great idea. Take all the “illegal” immigrants we can find and do them like that. Very target rich environment exists right here at home. And we won't really have to worry except perhaps housekeepers and nannies and ag and meatpacking workers will have to be replaced, along with the good cheap construction labor. That's the bad news. The good news, and there is always good news along with the bad, is that due to the recent ailment of the biggest “subprime” mortgage lenders, we won't need much homebuilding labor for a time. We won't need manufacturing labor either because that's all being done in China and parts East.

Apparently we threatened Bosnia with termination of diplomatic relations if they refused to cooperate in the “arrest” of these guys after the Bosnian Supreme Court ordered their release. WOW. I wonder what the real evidence is against them.

Now, I'm starting to get worried about getting calls from overseas because it might just provide the excuse for feds to start scanning all my mail, email and cellphone calls. Recently some a--hole from Nigeria, get this, he's pretending to be a Japanese pharmaceutical executive (the company supposedly sells meds for upset stomach, aches and pains!) appoints me “agent” then calls me and says they want my bank account information so they can wire me money. That's a good one! Do I look like a complete and total imbecile? Don't answer that question. Sorry, but after I started talking to the guy in Japanese I had to tell him I was calling the FBI on him it made me so mad. Lucky for me I know the language. So anyway, at that point he really started to sound a lot more like a Nigerian guy than an oriental. Orientals have that distinctive accent. You can't miss it. But those Nigerians, they're sharp. They've got oil too. I wondered then if these guys actually knew I'd been in Japan and was actually part Japanese. Naturally, I'm getting pretty good at detecting Nigerian accents. It's definitely an essential skill for making it on the outside. And Remember Bruce singing “Born in the USA” a few years back. You can't always take that stuff personally if you are Nigerian or Japanese, or an immigrant or something. Say, wasn't Pele from Nigeria? Bruce, Bruce came to a frat house in college one winter and blasted us out. Awesome. Black Sabbath came one year too. They played in the auditorium. Now, music is on electronic jukeboxes in all your neighborhood dives. Push the buttons on screen and music menus magically appear.

In fact, I actually expect to be rendered any day now. See y'all. The black helicopters are starting to swarm the neighborhood again.

There was a rally at the Ohio State House against repressive legislation that in effect if not by intent is designed to create a new class of homeless, jobless Americans. We are talking about the so-called “residency restrictions.” As if it wasn't idiotic enough to require “registration” and publish your personal information, predictably inviting vigilantes and witch-hunting, murder, mayhem and mutilation.

What has become of America?

Citing “fiscal responsibility” the President keeps vetoing children's health care bills (SCHIP) while asking for increases in the trillions for military authorizations in Iraq. In defense of what? Wholesale violations of privacy, usurious credit card and mortgage companies, killer toy importers, foreign oil barons. It is undisputed that during the six years of the Bush II imperium, imperium not in the sense of superpower which is fine by me (I like living in superpower-dom), but in the resemblance of martial law and arbitrary military rule, not to mention repressive economic policies that have been opening a Grand Canyon, okay, Texas-size income gap. Sadder and wiser should be the people. But what have we learned?

How to vote against our own self interests, that's what. Can Obama be the ticket to save America from a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton reign of Yaley friends and family: Skull and Bones? It's all good if you went to one of those elite universities. The top Fortune 500 companies boasts only one minority CEO, and he recently got ousted (Parsons). That sounds like a “good ol' boy club” to me. White, black, yellow, red ... doesn't matter to me, but I do recognize the signs of dictatorial rule. Curiously, Chavez of Venezuela (the state owner of Citgo, the national oil company there) sought to pass a law to appoint himself president-for-life. The vote failed -- good for the people. Again, some people don't handle power well. Of course, Venezuela's Citizen's Oil, as it's called, offers to provide heating fuel to Americans who've fallen on hard times and can't afford to buy it. At least that's what their TV ad says.

Reflections Just a few final reflections for the year. My last letter went out late in October and seven or eight short weeks have passed. It is called overcome by events. First, Thanksgiving. Now Christmas. And New Years of course.

As I have been thinking about the Holidays, events of the past year, what's happened and has not happened, where I've been and have not been, I think we all do this reflectivity “subconsciously,” whether or not we take the opportunity to express it outwardly in some fashion. For some, it might simply be a “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”. Here goes my list for 2007:

We have not gotten into another war.

We have come close to an economic recession: In fact we may be heading into one.

The rich have gotten a lot richer.

The Presidential candidates have been spending money like drunken sailors.

The Democrats seem to be having a good year in terms of raising money, for candidates and in polls.

The nation is still divided almost fifty/fifty between Red and Blue.

The Political Independent movement seems to be a growth phenomenon.

New electronic gadgets are racing to market faster than anybody can buy them (or figure out how to use them).

We are still guzzling gasoline at record rates. So is China, but even faster than us.

Global Warming seems to have become an accepted reality: Unfortunately nobody knows what to do about it.\

Tragically, Pakistan's democratic contender, Benazir Bhutto, was assasinated in the final week of 2007.

Reggie's team (my junior in high school) won the State 3A soccer title. It was only because of all the hooting and hollering I did personally, from the sidelines.

We took a vacation to Maine in July.

Life on the outside has gotten both simpler and more complicated, for me. As I become committed to “working” as some people call it -- making money, a living, whatever -- I have less time for other more interesting pursuits, like writing this newsletter.

I wish I could describe the scenery around here better, but here's a stab: Brunswick is a railroad town on the Potomac just below the Shenandoah River's confluence, where Harper's Ferry sits. Sharpsburg, Shepardstown, Antietam, Gettysburg are within striking distance. The C&O Canal runs from D.C. through Brunswick up to Cumberland and, presumably, all the way to the Ohio River. Lots of history here. Maryland Heights, which housed naval batteries overlooking Harpers Ferry and the Canal is one of my favorite short hikes. The view is awesome from the overlook. At the top, a good three hour round trip, is the remains of an old stone fort. Pres. Lincoln is said to have climbed up to a point and exclaimed the path was nearly vertical in places. It is. One can only imagine how many men it took to haul big guns up these paths. War sure is a labor intensive business.

That said, here is Prof. Berman's top ten for 2007. “By any measure, 2007 has been an amazing sentencing year, and I am not sure how to rank the significance of all these events:

-New USSC reduced crack guidelines

-USSC decision to to make its new guidelines retroactive Supreme Court's post-Booker decisions in Rita and then Gall and Kimbrough

-The "celebrity" sentencings of Conrad Black, Paris Hilton, Lewis Libby and Michael Vick

-Commutation of Lewis Libby's sentence by President Bush

-Hub-bub and eventually striking down of Genarlow Wilson's mandatory sentence

-Continued hub-bub over the former border agent's mandatory sentences

-California and other states' on-going struggles with its prison over-crowding problems

-Sex offender GPS tracking become more common and thus more costly

-Georgia state supreme court striking down state's sex offender residency restriction

-Heightened debate over child rape as a death-eligible offense

-Abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey

-De facto moratorium on executions as a result of Baze case before the Supreme Court”

Enron: Skilling's Appeal Marches On Thanks to White Collar Crime Prof Blog, the 162-page reply brief(!) filed by Jeff Skilling's legal team in his Fifth Circuit appeal is accessible online. The sentencing arguments begin on page 143, and these disparity arguments are developed starting at page 152. Recall that Andy Fastow got six after plea agreement to ten.

Re-Entry and Sentencing: The next issue of Federal Sentencing Reporter is focused on re-entry issues. The introductory essay for this issue (FSR Volume 20, No. 2) available at SSRN is entitled "The Second Chance Act and the Future of the Reentry Movement." From the abstract: Recently passed by the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support and currently awaiting action in the Senate, the Second Chance Act of 2007 (H.R. 1593) would authorize about $340 million in new spending on programs that support the reintegration of returning prisoners to their communities. If enacted, the SCA would represent a new milestone in the growing influence of the prisoner reentry movement, which has focused public attention on the daunting obstacles facing returning prisoners who seek to rebuild their lives as productive citizens. This essay critiques aspects of the SCA, considers the implications of the reentry movement for sentencing, and argues that reentry-based reforms should not be conceptualized primarily as recidivism reduction measures, but as opportunities to fulfill ethical obligations to some of the most marginalized and disadvantaged members of society.

Although decreased crime rates are certainly a plausible and desirable consequence of devoting more attention and resources to offenders during their transition from prison, conceptualizing the reentry “problem” as a law enforcement issue misses many of the most important social welfare and social justice concerns implicated in the treatment of returning prisoners, and threatens to reinforce, rather then supplant, the legalist mindset that fuels mass incarceration.

I wonder where that money is going to end up? And who is going to get a slice of the pie?? Guesses, anybody? My money is on “the government” -- state gov't programs, federal gov't programs; Churches and community action agencies; employment agencies, education and training. Prisoners released from prisons: zero. So here it is:

I. The Second Chance Act

As passed by the House, the SCA authorizes about $340 million in reentry-related

spending over two years, most of which would be distributed in the form of grants to state, local, and tribal authorities. In itself, this would represent a significant new infusion of resources into reentry programs, for instance, more than doubling the annual funding provided under the SVORI. Additionally, because the grants require substantial matching contributions by the recipients, the SCA may also induce significant increases in reentry-related spending at the state and local level. On the other hand, when assessed against the number and needs of the 1.3 million or so prisoners who will be released over the two-year period (or, for that matter, the nation’s nearly $50 billion in annual spending on corrections10), the SCA’s commitment of funds can hardly be regarded as dramatic. The SCA’s single largest authorization ($55 million per year) is intended for adult and juvenile offender demonstration projects. The program’s requirements exemplify the SCA’s general approach to reentry. Grant recipients (state, local, or tribal agencies) must develop a reentry strategic plan containing measurable performance outcomes, one of which must be a 50 percent reduction in recidivism rates over five years.11 Other required performance measures include increased employment, education, and housing opportunities for offenders released back into the community.12 Grant recipients must collaborate with corrections, health, housing, child welfare, education, substance abuse, victims services, employment services, and law enforcement agencies, and convene reentry tasks forces comprised of diverse agencies and community organizations.13 Priority must be given to applicants who provide prerelease reentry planning and continuity in the provision of services.14

In another notable provision, discussed by Eric Miller in his contribution to this issue,15

the SCA also authorizes $20 million in grants for state and local reentry courts.16 Such courts, modeled on the specialized drug treatment courts that have been implemented in many jurisdictions over the past 15 years, would give judges a pivotal role not only in monitoring returning offenders, but also in ensuring that returnees are provided with “coordinated and comprehensive reentry services,” including substance abuse treatment, housing assistance, education, employment training, and the like.17 To that end, courts receiving grants are specifically required to consult and coordinate with law enforcement, social service, and community agencies. Throughout, the SCA emphasizes recidivism reduction as a primary legislative purpose, but recognizes that this objective is not just a matter for the courts and law enforcement agencies. Rather, the bill contemplates that assistance for returning prisoners in such areas as housing, employment, education, and substance abuse treatment will also contribute to crime prevention goals. Moreover, in promoting the delivery of such services, the SCA also recognizes the importance of planning (at both a global level and an individual prisoner level), multiagency collaboration, and continuity through pre- and post-release stages. In short, the SCA repudiates

the notion that recidivism reduction is best achieved through deterrent threats alone and calls for the delivery of services to former prisoners, not in a minimal or grudging way, but in a systematic, proactive fashion.

II. Reentry and Sentencing

As exemplified by the SCA, a core (perhaps the core) principle of the reentry movement

is that successful reintegration of an offender often requires the thoughtful collaboration of

diverse actors over an extended period of time. The movement’s logic, as Michael Pinard suggests in his contribution to this issue, must inevitably direct attention to the actors who dominate the front end of the process, including the lawyers and judges who control sentencing decisions.18 And, indeed, as Ryan King indicates in his contribution, one of the most provocative recent developments in state-level sentencing law has been the adoption of legislation in New York and Oregon that requires consideration of reentry needs at the time of

sentencing.19 The remainder of this Part discusses four ways that a reentry focus might affect sentencing.

A. Punishment Culture and Overall Severity A reentry focus may contribute to a fundamental shift in the culture of punishment. Elsewhere, I have argued that American criminal justice policy has been dominated in recent decades by a legalist mindset.20 Legalists draw sharp moral distinctions between legal and illegal conduct, heap moral condemnation on lawbreakers, and emphasize consistent, severe penal responses to deter crime and reinforce law-based moral norms. Legalism is premised on the assumptions that criminals freely choose to break the law, that a choice to break the law constitutes a basic rejection of the entire system of shared responsibilities that holds society together, and that the criminal thereby surrenders any strong claim that he or she might otherwise have to the respect or support of others in his or her community. This legalist approach to

criminal justice might be contrasted with a harm-reduction approach. Harm-reductionists eschew unrestrained moral condemnation, recognize that criminal acts may sometimes represent a failing of society as much as a failing of the criminal, and emphasize constructive social responses to crime that are intended to minimize future harm (including the harm suffered by the criminal as a result of the conviction and sentence).

The reentry movement adheres more to the harm-reduction than to the legalist paradigm.

Indeed, the whole notion of delivering services to offenders is, at some basic level, inconsistent with legalism. Establishing an affirmative role for others, in addition to the offender himself or herself, in addressing recidivism risks dilutes the legalist message that avoiding crime is a simple matter of making good choices between clear right and wrong. Moreover, systematic efforts to plan for an offender’s reentry—particularly at the early stages in the process, such as sentencing or plea bargaining, before the offender has had much opportunity to demonstrate remorse and a genuine commitment to do better in the future—implies that the offender is entitled to return and resume membership in the community, thereby undercutting the legalist project of moral condemnation and harsh deterrence. Finally, the reentry movement’s call for individualized planning and treatment of offenders is in tension with legalism’s emphasis on consistency in punishment and its assumption that all similar offense conduct has the same moral significance,

regardless of the offender’s personal history and characteristics. In short, the reentry movement has the potential to join other growing movements in the criminal justice system with a harm reductionist flavor (e.g., therapeutic jurisprudence, restorative justice, problem-solving courts, and, to some extent, victims’ rights) in weakening legalism’s hold over penal law and policy (which is best exemplified by truth in sentencing, mandatory minimums, and the federal sentencing guidelines).21 THE SECOND CHANCE ACT AND THE FUTURE OF THE REENTRY MOVEMENT, Michael M. O’Hear, pp 3-5.

Z's NB. The biggest bang for the buck would be to “legalize” drugs, esp. marijuana and probably also cocaine, which was at one time freely available in Coca Cola, which would immediately and automatically eliminate half or more of all crimes and the opportunity for crime. Regulate, don't criminalize: Amsterdam and Vancouver, B.C. provide the examples. Only then could we get down to the real business of fighting crime, terrorism, etc. Opportunities in the illegal international drug trade are just too vast and inviting. We should simply let the foreign drug cartel(s) do business legally, but with the US government, which controls the intra- national drug trade. Whom could possibly be opposed to this reform? Possibly, just possibly, only those who benefit from the current system: organized crime groups and the law enforcement agent(s/ies) who make a career of purportedly enforcing those obsolete and ineffective drug laws.

Want More, Give More? RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Arrested on a charge of theft, a teenage girl was locked up in an Amazon jail for weeks with 21 men who would only let her eat in return for sex. Feminist Law Professors post.

From California, (AP article) an "advisory panel created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger considered Thursday how to fix the sex-offender law passed last year because it fails to say who is responsible for tracking offenders' whereabouts once they complete parole." Here are more details: The initiative, known as Jessica's Law, was approved by 70 percent of voters in 2006. It stiffens penalties for sex offenders, prohibits released offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park and requires that they wear satellite tracking devices for the rest of their lives. But the law doesn't specify whether the state, counties or local police departments should have jurisdiction over offenders once they are off parole. It also does not include money to pay for lifetime GPS monitoring and has no penalty for ex-parolees who simply remove the ankle bracelets.... Representatives of county sheriff's and local police departments said they do not have enough money or staff to take over the monitoring program. The corrections department estimates it could cost about $7 per day to monitor each offender with a minimal GPS monitoring system. The state's more extensive GPS system costs about $33 per offender per day, but that includes the cost of the parole agents. "We don't know what it's going to cost, and the conservative estimates are hundreds of millions of dollars" as more offenders complete parole, said Nancy O'Malley, chief assistant district attorney in Alameda County. There are so many interesting and telling dimensions to this story: the public's broad support for GPS tracking without concern for the costly particulars; the inevitability of techno-corrections being impeded by cost concerns; the willingness of Gov. Schwarzenegger to create a commission to study this issue while he opposed the creation of a much-needed sentencing commission for his state.

SCOTUS Focus In the January Calendar, (here thanks to SCOTUS blog) seven of the twelve cases so far scheduled are clearly criminal, including the lethal injection case. The Supreme Court will open with constitutional issues surrounding the lethal injection method of execution Jan. 7, Baze v. Rees (07-5439), the Kentucky case raising three issues about the three-drug protocol for execution, now used in 36 states. Two combined cases from Indiana on requiring photo IDs to vote will be heard in the first hour on Wednesday, Jan. 9.

Monday, Jan. 7 Baze v. Rees (07-5439) — constitutionality of lethal injection protocol. Dada v. Mukasey (06-1181) –postponement of agreement for alien to voluntarily leave U.S.

Tuesday, Jan. 8 Gonzalez v. U.S. (06-11612) — waiver of right to Article III judge to preside over jury selection when counsel agreed to have a U.S. magistrate instead

Boulware v. U.S. (06-1509) — taxation on diversion of corporate funds to shareholder of a firm that has no profits

Wednesday, Jan. 9 Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (07-21) and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita (07-25) — constitutionality of requiring voters to show a photo ID before they may vote (Cases consolidated for one hour of argument)

Kentucky Retirement Systems v. EEOC (06-1037) — scope of age bias in disability benefits packages

Monday, Jan. 14 Virginia v. Moore (06-1082) — lawfulness of search following an arrest that violates state law Preston v. Ferrer (06-1463) — federal preemption of arbitration agreement on talent agent’s fees

Tuesday, Jan. 15 U.S. v. Rodriquez (06-1646) — crimes that qualify for enhanced sentence under armed career criminal law; specific issue involves state drug crime conviction Begay v. U.S. (06-11543)– whether felony drunk-driving is a violent felony for purposes of enhanced sentencing under armed career criminal law

Wednesday, Jan. 16 Quanta Computer v. LG Electronics (06-937) — definition of exhaustion of patent rights when licensee sells products containing the patent Meadwestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Department of Revenue (06-1413) — validity of state tax on sale of investment in LexisNexis

I looked briefly at (a link) the Fourth Amendment case and the Virginia Supreme Court was right on this one. If states refuse to provide a remedy for violation of state law, law that is "within the scope or reach" of a (intentionally) similar provision of the Bill of Rights, they should be held to the federal remedy. The states should not be invited to re-write the Bill of Rights and fail to enforce the revision.
The Gitmo Detainee Cases march on: here is
link to reply briefs.
The fallout from Carey v Musladin is beginning to hit the ground, as seen
here, in a brief in opposition to certiorari, involving defendant's habeas relief under either Cronic or Strickland. The brief does an exceptional job of clarifying the notion of "clearly established law"... as well as the distinctions among Hill, Cronic, Strickland lines of ineffectiveness of assistance of counsel claims.

SCOTUSblog details "petitions to watch" at the Justices' private conference scheduled for January 4, 2008:

Docket: 07-61 Case name: Mathias v. United States-Issue: Whether an escape conviction following a failure to return to a work release program is a violent felony for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act. (Note: similar issues are presented in No. 06-10751, Golden v. United States, and No. 06-11206, Chambers v. United States.)

Docket: 07-343 Case name: Kennedy v. Louisiana-Issue: Whether the Eighth Amendment bar on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits capital punishment for the crime of child rape.

Docket: 07-452 Case name: Schriro v. Lambright-Issue: Whether, under Tennard v. Dretke (2001), a court may consider the lack of any causal connection between potential mitigating evidence and the crime in determining whether the failure to introduce the evidence prejudiced the defendant.

Docket: 07-478 Case name: Hartmann v. Burris-Issue: Whether seeking discretionary state court review of a criminal conviction tolls the one year filing requirement under AEDPA.

From Grits: Sign Our Judicial Complaint Against Judge Sharon Keller. If you are as shocked as we were by Judge Sharon Keller saying "We close at 5" and refusing to accept an appeal 20 minutes after 5 PM by lawyers representing a man about to be executed, then sign on to this complaint. We will submit this complaint to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct on November 16, 2007, which is also the day we will have a protest at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals at 4:45pm. Anyone can sign the complaint. In order for your name to count on the complaint for the submission, you must provide all the requested contact information, including your phone number and occupation. If you would like to download a copy of the complaint for your records, click here. If you would like to help us with a donation, please click the button to the left or send a check made out to Texas Moratorium Network to 3616 Far West Blvd, Suite 117, Box 251, Austin, Texas 78731. Donations are not tax-deductible. If you have questions, please call 512-302-6715.

"quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

- "Who will guard the guards?" wrote the Roman poet Juvenal. Citing numerous instances of CEO robbing the public coffers with huge payoffs to self after losing billions of shareholder $$$, so also asks William Lerach, Plaintiff's lawyer and shareholder advocate, here, as he prepares to go to jail to serve a one year sentence for boldly stepping over the line in his advocacy, as he put it: “in my zeal to stand up against this kind of corporate greed over the years, I stepped over the line.” It turns out that the legal system is a lot tougher on shareholder lawyers than it appears to be on Wall Street executives.

fini

1 comment:

f.paul said...


Patrick H. Yancey is an attorney consultant Maritime Lawyers in Houma with extensive familiarity and knowledge of the offshore oil and gas industry and cruise ships.With experience as both petroleum engineers and roustabouts we are cruise ship injury attorney Jones Act and Maritime lawyer and personal injury lawyer in Louisiana.Our total comprehension of the maritime industry allows us to provide unsurpassed representation to our clients.